Google's 20 Percent Time Projects Pay Dividends for the Rest of Us

eWEEK offers a visual peek at Google's famous 20 percent time projects. These include Gmail, Google News, Google Talk, Orkut, Google Sky, Google Moderator, Google RechargeIT and Google Grants. What is your favorite of the bunch?

Aside from the college dorm-like aesthetics, on-campus meals and other perks Google's 20,000 or so employees enjoy, Google is known for some other customs that differentiate it from the mass of other high-tech companies.

One of those is the 20 percent time project rule,
which allows programmers and other Google employees to spend one of
their five work days per week working on something of their own design.

These projects stay in-house for awhile, but several have been spun off
for use in the outside world. Do you know which Google products or
features evolved from the 20 percent time rule? Gmail, Google News and
Google Talk are among that number.